Mass demonstrations throughout the territory of Argentina took place this Friday with an epicenter in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, in repudiation of the failed attack against the vice president Cristina Kirchner that left the country in a state of shock.
(Read here: Argentina: Alberto Fernández visits Cristina Kirchner after attack against her)
In fact, President Alberto Fernández considered it the most serious incident since the return to democracy in 1983.
(See also: Argentina decrees a national holiday after the attack on Cristina Fernández)
“This attack deserves the strongest repudiation of all political sectors, of all the men and women who make up the republic. These facts affect our democracy”, the president said in a speech.
The attack against Kirchner with a firearm that did not fire was perpetrated on Thursday night by a man who is being investigated as to whether he acted alone.
The assassination attempt, in the midst of growing political polarization, was also repudiated by the main leaders of the opposition Together for Change (centre-right). Even today, Congress will hold a special session to debate what happened.
The day of demonstrations It started at noon this Friday, where tens of thousands of protesters, called by political parties, unions, social movements and organizations for the defense of human rights, began to march in the main cities of the country.
“I am going to the Plaza de Mayo in the first place in support of democracy, in the second place in support of Cristina, so that she knows that we are here, and third, to see if the Argentines wake up and understand that this path is not going,” he said. Adriana Spina, a 61-year-old retired teacher who does not usually participate in demonstrations.
The attack occurred Thursday night at the gates of Kirchner’s home in the neighborhood
Recoleta de Buenos Aires, when a man slipped into the crowd of militants who were waiting for her to express their solidarity with the former president (2007-15), accused of corruption.
The corner where the vice president lives has been a place of demonstration since last August 22 the Prosecutor’s Office required 12 years in prison for her and political disqualification life in a trial in which she is accused of fraud to the State.
Diego Reynoso, a political scientist at the University of San Andrés, considered that “there was already a level of verbal and symbolic violence, which now transferred to behavior, materialized.” “This fact is a watershed,” Reynoso told the AFP agency. In recent years “political violence had never been a problem in Argentina. A civic and democratic consensus that we had is breaking down, and it is unfortunate,” he added.
For his part, political analyst Carlos Fara said that the main political parties will now try to “lower the waters.”
“This incident occurs after two weeks of high political tension. I don’t think there is anyone politically responsible for this, but climates are generated that cause these situations,” he told AFP.
Kirchner, 69, so loved by his followers within peronism as detested by opposition sectorscontinues to have great influence and power in Argentina, seven years after he left the presidency and one before the 2023 elections, on which he has not yet shown his intentions.
Until the closing of this edition, the vice president had not made any statements. According to the Argentine newspaper La Nación, President Fernández went to Kirchner’s house and met with her for about 45 minutes. Then, the president left her house in comfortable clothes and greeted her followers.
On Monday the arguments of the defense should begin in the trial against Kirchner. With a total of 13 accused, it is estimated that their lawyers will speak at the end of the month.
international repudiation
The truth is that the assassination attempt also had wide international repercussions. Leaders from around the world sent messages to Cristina Fernández.
Pope Francis, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, expressed his “solidarity and closeness at this delicate moment” to his compatriot and said he prays that “social harmony and respect for democratic values always prevail.”
Political violence had never been a problem in Argentina. A civic and democratic consensus that we had is breaking down, and it is unfortunate
For its part, the United States “strongly condemned the assassination attempt” and expressed its support “for the Argentine government and people in rejecting violence and hatred,” according to a message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Twitter.
From Colombia, President Gustavo Petro said: “The attack on Cristina in Argentina is the result of sectarianism that turns into violence. It has become a Latin American practice to think that politics is the physical or legal elimination of the adversary, such a practice is pure fascism. Politics must be Freedom”.
On the other shore, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed in 2018 while campaigning, also sent a message to the Argentine leader.
“I already sent you a note. Sorry. Now, when I was stabbed, there were people who celebrated there. There are already people accusing me of that problem. Fortunately, the assailant did not know how to handle weapons. If he had known, he would have been successful,” Bolsonaro told reporters.
For his part, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, through his spokesman, stated that he was “shocked by the news” and expressed his condemnation of “violence”.
And from Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro, on his Twitter account, wrote: “We send our solidarity to Vice President CFKArgentina, in the face of the attempt on her life. We strongly repudiate this action that seeks to destabilize the peace of the brother Argentine people. The Great Homeland is with you, comrade!”
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
*With AFP
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